MADISON - The head of Wisconsin's economic development agency touted the state's deal with Foxconn Technology Group on Tuesday, just days after Gov. Tony Evers said he wants to renegotiate the agreement.

At the same time, Mark Hogan, the secretary of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., would not say whether the Taiwan-based electronics maker wants to make changes to the deal and signaled he'd kept Republican legislative leaders in the loop on talks that started two months ago.

"The value of the contract is the contract is scalable," Hogan told reporters. "We have a solid contract with the company. If they spent $6 billion and they employed 6,000 people, 7,000 people, the contract scales to that."

Hogan helped put together the Foxconn deal under Evers' predecessor, Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Under it, the state agreed to pay the firm up to $3 billion if it created as many as 13,000 jobs. With local incentives, it could be worth as much as $4 billion.

The actual size of the deal depends on how many jobs the company creates and how much it invests in its operations in Racine County.

If the company spends less or creates fewer jobs than originally envisioned, then "everything scales back as a result of that," Hogan said. "And that's already built into the contract. So from that perspective, there's no need to renegotiate the contract."

He did not say whether the contract should be renegotiated for other reasons and declined to say whether Foxconn was seeking changes to the deal.

Evers, a Democrat, said last week he did not believe the company would create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin and wanted to cut a new deal with the company. He has declined to provide details on what changes he's seeking.

Hogan took a different stance on whether the company would create 13,000 jobs.

"I think they've continued to make that commitment," Hogan said. "And again I think the contract is scaled in a way that whatever they end up employing, that that's what they'll get. It's a pay-for-performance basis."

The top Republicans in the Legislature — Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau — last week criticized Evers for wanting to make changes to the deal, with Fitzgerald saying he was making a "one-sided attempt to reopen the contract."

Fitzgerald spokesman Alec Zimmerman said Hogan and Fitzgerald do talk, but the senator was unaware Evers wanted to make changes to the contract until he said so publicly.

“What was surprising to me was when Governor Evers suggested that he wanted to open the contract, without offering any specifics," Fitzgerald said in a statement. "This contract is solid — if the job growth and investment doesn’t come, the state doesn’t pay.”

Aides to Evers did not immediately react to Hogan's latest comments. But in a Monday interview, Evers gave Hogan good marks, saying he was "forthcoming" and "more than willing to communicate with us."

Hogan was appointed under Walker and Evers has the ability to replace him in September. He said Monday he doubted he would move quickly to do that.

"Just kicking out the old and installing new isn’t necessarily going to be the best way to transition if there is one," Evers said. "So I don’t after September anticipate doing anything immediately but I have the option, so I’ll keep those options open."

The Foxconn deal has been imbued with politics from the start. Democrats attacked the deal during last year's campaign as bad for taxpayers, while Walker and President Donald Trump championed it.

Trump came to Wisconsin for Foxconn's groundbreaking and he'll hold a rally Saturday near Green Bay.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, took a shot at Trump in a tweet Tuesday that called the Foxconn deal a "scam."

"Trump promised to protect American jobs," Sanders tweeted. "He lied, and workers across Green Bay and the Fox Valley have lost their jobs."

Trump promised to protect American jobs. He lied, and workers across Green Bay and the Fox Valley have lost their jobs. When we are in the White House, we will end the corporate greed behind the Shopko closures, Kimberly-Clark layoffs and Foxconn scam. https://t.co/jlY2sjor9n